Awesome Kotaku article on a****** game publishers

[Lambonius]

I found this article to be a breath of fresh air.

http://kotaku.com/we-need-better-video-game-publishers-472880781

Thoughts?

[stika]

I'll play a little bit of the devil's advocate here, but he does make it seem like Developers hold no blame at all. I mean, if you have Microsoft or EA publish your game... you kind of already know what you're going into.

with that said, yes, most of today's publisher suck and suck hard, even smaller ones (Lace Mamba Global anyone?)

I've always loved buying physical copies of my games, but with the greater importance platforms like STEAM are gaining it will hopefully end the terrible practices many publishers seem to have

[Lambonius]

You're definitely right about not taking ALL blame for s****y products off the developer.  I don't think Aliens: Colonial Marines, for example, can entirely be chocked up to publisher interference.  The Sim City always-on fiasco, on the other hand, reeks of that sort of thing.  So it's definitely case by case. 

[stika]

Yep, in the case of Aliens Colonial Marines, I definitely side with Sega on this one, I didn't see any wrong doing on the publisher's part

[wilco64256]

We actually got an email from Lace Mamba Global a few weeks ago asking if we'd be interested in partnering with them on a retail release of Cognition.

[Lambonius]

We actually got an email from Lace Mamba Global a few weeks ago asking if we'd be interested in partnering with them on a retail release of Cognition.

Hahaha....which side of your collective asses did you tell them to kiss?

[wilco64256]

That one just went quietly ignored. Though I very seriously considered replying with just a link to the big open letter / news article about them.

[Lambonius]

That one just went quietly ignored. Though I very seriously considered replying with just a link to the big open letter / news article about them.

Aww...you should have done that.  It would have felt really good, I imagine. 

[Bludshot]

The rare quality kotaku article.  It is nice to see the hate spread out, too many people focus on EA, when everyone else is pulling the same garbage.

[Big C from Cauney island]

Yep, in the case of Aliens Colonial Marines, I definitely side with Sega on this one, I didn't see any wrong doing on the publisher's part

  Although /i had some fun with it, Aliens colonial marines was buggy, out of date, and absolutely not what was promised at E3. Even to this day fake screenshots are still shown to advertise the game.  I don't know exactly who is at fault, but either way someone was at fault for something dishonest.  Lying to your customers definitely not a good policy. Anyways, I just bought the new Tomb Raider and it is phenomenal.
I think having fewer people in control of a project means less of all this bureacratic BS.  With the Aliens game, a bunch of it was outsourced, with supposed oversight by gearbox under Sega. Too many names. Companies should keep it simple and just make games. I'm all for kickstarter.   

[stika]

Yep, in the case of Aliens Colonial Marines, I definitely side with Sega on this one, I didn't see any wrong doing on the publisher's part

  Although /i had some fun with it, Aliens colonial marines was buggy, out of date, and absolutely not what was promised at E3. Even to this day fake screenshots are still shown to advertise the game.  I don't know exactly who is at fault, but either way someone was at fault for something dishonest.  Lying to your customers definitely not a good policy. Anyways, I just bought the new Tomb Raider and it is phenomenal.
I think having fewer people in control of a project means less of all this bureacratic BS.  With the Aliens game, a bunch of it was outsourced, with supposed oversight by gearbox under Sega. Too many names. Companies should keep it simple and just make games. I'm all for kickstarter.

From what I understand, Gearbox used some of the funding they received for Aliens to create Borderlands 2, choosing instead to outsource their game to Timegate without Sega's knowledge.

Gearbox can definitely be shady when it wants to

[Bludshot]

I don't trust any person or group that has obscene nerd cred, and Gearbox fits the bill there.  Have they done anything decent besides Diablo with guns?

[stika]

Not that i know of

[Lambonius]

Gearbox did the Brothers in Arms games, didn't they?  Those games were great, especially the first one.

[stika]

never played them, not my style

[Say]

I read this article a while ago, it's interesting. However, the one thing I'd say about it is that while I understand how important it is to bring awareness to a situation - I'd say is far more important to bring solutions as well. There are far too many indies taking a big risk into hiring publishers, so what to do?

Yes, most publishers come to misunderstandings with developers just for the sake of poor communication. They take in as many games as they shouldn't and then they end up swamped with a bunch of work for like, 3 people or something. They gamble on networks they don't want to work and cold prospects via editors they have never met, I could be wrong but I think most developers glamorize all of this because of the amount opportunities they all dream this would bring.

But again, as everything there are some horrible stories as the obvious - Lace Mamba, as well as there are other wonderful ones such as Iceberg. Personally, I've met other people from the industry by chance and I have got to admit I'm surprised how well structured some others are (marketing dept, customer support, sales dept, etc)

As an indie yourself, what would you do? Pretend the game development part is done - what's next? (serious question for everyone, here)

[stika]

I doubt you'll get a proper answer, Say. I think too many indies focus on making their game, but once it's done they don't know how to get the word out, which is not an easy thing to do, they'd need at least one person capable of performing proper marketing